Friday, October 06, 2006

Former Shreveporter's 'Burning Man' documentary to be screened

In 2002, Michael Wilson and a film crew set out to chronicle a year in the life of the Burning Man festival, a weeklong arts festival that sprouts up on a Nevada desert landscape during the week before Labor Day.

They wound up with "Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock," a documentary that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the artists, organizers and festivalgoers who make it one of the most mysterious and enduring art gatherings.

Art is exhibited by hundreds and experienced by more than 30,000, but nothing but ice and coffee is sold. If art has ever existed for art's sake, it's at the Black Rock Desert.

Wilson, a former Shreveporter who now lives in Austin, Texas, will screen "Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock" on Saturday at Centenary College."You know, it's just the coolest thing on the planet," Wilson said. "It's an unbelievable meeting of some of the most creative people that I've even run across."